Tigers killing and eating elephants in Corbett National Park: Government study reveals worrying phenomenon

Agencies
June 16, 2019

New Delhi, Jun 16: Tigers have been found to be killing elephants, mainly young ones, in the famed Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand and in a few cases eating them too, according to an official study.

The findings, which is a part of the study conducted by the park authority, signals a worrying trend in wildlife as tigers usually don't eat elephants, wildlife experts say.

A total of nine tigers, 21 elephants and six leopards were found dead from 2014 to May 31, 2019, due to infighting and clashes over issues related of mating, according to the study.

"Out of the total 36 cases for the three species, 21 were reported in case of wild elephants alone. However, a very surprising aspect was that around 60 per cent of wild elephant death cases (13) were due to attack by tigers mostly on young ones," it said.

Senior IFS officer and in-charge of the national park, Sanjiv Chaturvedi said the phenomenon of tigers eating elephants is unique.

"One of its reasons could be that tigers need comparatively less amount of efforts and energy in killing an elephant as against that needed in hunt of species like Sambhar and Cheetal. Killing an elephant results in large quantum of food for them too," said Chaturvedi, director of the park.

He said the national park has a unique ecosystem as there are 225 tigers and around 1,100 wild elephants, whereas other national parks like Ranthambore, Kanha and Bandhavgarh mainly have tigers.

Even in cases where elephants were killed in infighting, tigers were found eating their body parts, the study said.

This peculiar aspect of tiger-elephant conflict needs to be studied in further details, it added. "Regarding remaining cases of death of wild elephants, it was mostly because of fight due to issue of mating," the study said.

Wildlife activist Ajay Dubey said this tiger-elephant conflict is unheard of and need immediate attention.

"It is really surprising and worrying that tigers are eating elephant. Authorities must look into this aspect and take necessary steps," he said.

In case of tigers, total number of deaths during the five years period was nine and out of these, 80 per cent (seven) cases were due to infighting, the study said.

From the analysis of case reports and sample sites, these were found to be primarily due to territorial fights or mating issues, it said.

Tigers have very strong territorial instincts and this emerged as one of dominant causes of infighting deaths.

In this regard, detailed study about extent of average territorial area, moving pattern and adequacy of present tiger reserve are to be studied in further details, the study suggested.

The remaining 20 per cent death cases were found to be because of fight with wild boars and porcupines, it said.

In case of leopards, there were six deaths because of infighting. Of these, two third cases were due to attack by other carnivore species.

"Out of four cases, in two cases, there were definitive evidences of killing by tigers but in rest of two cases, exact identity of attacking species is yet to be established. This aspect of tiger-leopard conflict is to be further studied in details. In remaining one third cases, it was because of mutual infighting among themselves," the study said.

The study was conducted in wake of death of a tigress on May 27, 2019, because of infighting.

"The recent case of tigress appears prima facie due to forced mating attempts by a dominant male tiger, resulting in fatal spinal injuries," it said.

The Corbett park is the first national park of India, established in 1936. It was then named Hailey National Park. In 1957, it was rechristened as the Corbett National Park in the memory of Jim Corbett, great naturalist and eminent conservationist.

The park, which is spread in an area of around 1,200 sq km is situated at the foothills of the Himalayas. There are estimated 340 tigers in Uttarakhand, according to 2014 census of the big cats. The state has three tiger reserves -- Corbett National Park, Rajaji Tiger Reserve and Kalagarh Tiger Reserve.

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Agencies
March 8,2020

Mumbai, Mar 8: A day after the Enforcement Directorate registered a money laundering case against Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor and raided his premises, he was taken to the agency's office in Mumbai on Saturday for further questioning.

Kapoor, who was grilled by central agency's officials on Friday night at his Samudra Mahal residence in Mumbai, was shifted to the ED office in the metropolis around 12.30 pm.

ED officials said Kapoor was questioned throughout the night, with some rest time.

A senior ED official connected with the probe told IANS: "Kapoor will be questioned about Yes Bank loans to Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL)."

The official said that during searches a lot of incriminating documents were found and the agency wanted to grill him on his links with DHFL promoters and other companies.

Kapoor's alleged role in the disbursal of loan to a corporate entity and kickbacks reportedly received in his wife's bank account are also under probe.

The ED had filed the money laundering case against Kapoor and raided his residence, apart from issuing a look-out circular so that he does not flee the country.

The ED registered a money laundering case against Kapoor as a continuation of its probe against the DHFL wherein it was allegedly found that Rs 12,500 crore was diverted to 80 shell companies using one lakh fake borrowers. The transactions with these shell companies date back to 2015.

An ED official in New Delhi told IANS that the DHFL probe revealed that funds diverted by the DHFL originated from Yes Bank.

He said that the searches at Kapoor's residence on Friday night were meant to find out any irregularity in grant of loans to the DHFL by the Yes Bank.

The ED has accused Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan of DHFL of purchasing shares in five firms -- Faith Realtors, Marvel Township, Abe Realty, Poseidon Realty, and Random Realtors -- after which they were amalgamated with Sunblink.

The outstanding loans of these five firms, totalling around Rs 2,186 crore till July 2019, were allegedly appropriated onto the books of Sunblink to cover up the diversion of loans acquired from DHFL.

The ED's action comes after the RBI superseded Yes Bank Board for 30 days and appointed an administrator, putting a cap of Rs 50,000 on withdrawals by account holders for a month.

The RBI said that the bank's board was superseded "owing to serious deterioration in the financial position of the bank".

Former SBI CFO Prashant Kumar was appointed as administrator of Yes Bank, which has over 1,000 branches and 1,800-plus ATMs across the country.

On Thursday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the bank was on watch since 2017 and developments relating to it were monitored on a day-to-day basis.

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Agencies
July 29,2020

Ambala, Jul 29: The five French Rafale fighter jets touched down at Haryana's Ambala after covering a distance of nearly 7,000 km to join the Indian Air Force.

The jets were given a customary water salute upon their arrival at the airbase, some 220-km from the India-Pakistan border.

The formal induction ceremony of the aircraft would be held later. The aircraft would move out soon to another operational base for operational sorties.

After taking off from France on Monday, the aircraft made their first stopover at a French base in the United Arab Emirates on their way to India and were refuelled by the French Air Force tanker aircraft somewhere around Greece or Israel over the sea before landing there.

The five were flown by pilots of the 17 Golden Arrows led by Commanding Officer Group Captain Harkirat Singh along with other pilots, Wing Commanders MK Singh, R Kataria, Sidhu and Arun.

The five Rafale fighter aircraft took off on Monday for India from an airbase in France. The weather in Ambala was cloudy with one or two spells of rain or thundershowers being forecasted.

India had signed a Rs 59,000-crore deal on September 23, 2016 for 36 Rafale jets from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation.

In view of Rafale fighter jets landing in the city on Wednesday, Section 144 is being imposed in four villages close to Ambala airbase. Munish Sehgal, DSP Traffic, Ambala, said the administration is on a high alert and the gathering of people on roofs and photography during landing has been strictly prohibited.

The five Rafale fighter jets had entered the Indian Airspace earlier in the day. "The Birds have entered the Indian airspace..Happy Landing in Ambala!" tweeted the Defence Minister's Office earlier on Wednesday.

The Defence Minister's Office further informed that the five Rafales were escorted by 02 SU30 MKIs as they enter the Indian airspace.

Here are the key Highlights of Rafale:

It's an Omni role aircraft.
4th Generation Fighter Jet.
It's a two-engine aircraft.
It's top speed is 2,222 Km/Hr.
It can go up to 50,000 Ft.
It's Rate of Climb is 60,000 Ft/Min.
It's Operational Range is 3,700 Km.
Ground Support.
In-depth Strike.
Anti-Ship Strike.

Reach and combat radius is 1600-1700 Kms.
Capable for Long Range standoff Mission.
Equipped with Air-to-Ground Missile System.

Specifically designed to take off from an extremely cold high altitude region.

It will also be fitted with the air-to-air beyond visual range interception combat and self-defence missile.

It can also carry the best long range air-to-land missile.

It has multi-directional radar system which can detect 40 targets at the same time in a range of over 100 Kms.

It has advance radar warning receiver to identify hostile tracking system a towed decoy system to thwart incoming missile attacks.

Rafale will ensure that our pilots will not have to cross the border to strike the target, that is about 600 Km in enemy territory.

It will get French industrial support for 50 years. 

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News Network
January 20,2020

New Delhi, Jan 20: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said the kind of cleaning in the system that the BJP-led government had to carry out after coming to power in 2014 was "unbelievable" and it undertook the exercise without any grudge or worry.

Between 2014-16, there were a lot of questions as to why reforms did not come fast and there were comments that the government was incapable of bringing them, she said delivering the Nani Palkhivala Memorial lecture on "Road Map to $5 Trillion Economy" here.

Pointing out that there were allegations and criticism that the government wants to do something but it did not, Sitharaman said, "I am fully willing to buy that." She recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi often said he did not believe in incremental changes and the country needed good transformational change. The stage in which India is today, it cannot have little marginal increments, but good transformational change.

"But still one might say in the last five years the government never did. That can be a critical analysis and I am fully willing to buy that. Because post-2014 the kind of cleaning up the government had to do was unbelievable and we undertook that exercise without a grudge without a worry.. we had to do it and it is part of the game," she said. Elaborating, Sitharaman said states have their own views on Land Acquisition Bill and the government could not have done anything because land, after all, is with them.

Commenting on the topic 'Road Map to $5 trillion economy,' she said quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comments, the government would take the route "Sarkar ka abhaav nahi hona chahiye, prabhaav hona chahiye aur dabaav nahi hona chahiye."

"Abhaav and dabaav both of which are not desirable, abhaav is the inadequacy or lack of adequate presence or shortfall. You do not need a shortfall. You need a government where it should be present, where it is expected to function.", she said.

"So there should not be abhaav. Dabaav (meaning pressure) is not something you want from the government. So, you want Prabhaav. It is broadly an influence, facilitation, broadly the philosophy with which it is mandated, she said.

Noting that the government has got the mandate through the election, she said, "The mandate was spelt out in so many different ways in its manifesto. So the route towards $5 trillion is this."

"We have to be there to facilitate. We have to be there to make it easy. We have to be where you need us, where there is no policy (reforms from the government)," she said.

On the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) implemented by the government, the union minister said the approach of the IBC was not to shut business. "IBC takes on the approach in having some kind of resolution where all people who exploited the company do not come back through the "back door," she said.

IBC was done through better management so that the institution is alive and kicking. It is something which she wanted to carry forward from Modi 1.0 to 2.0. "The point I am trying to make on this road to $5 trillion economy is that it is not just an abstraction, this is not how I want India to be. But in micro-level too, we are coming in response to every stakeholder," she said.

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Well Wisher
 - 
Tuesday, 21 Jan 2020

LOL. Do not say anything, else she will get angry.

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